Easy Guide to Subwoofer Placement: Finding the Optimal Location for Best Sound

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Audioholics Robot

Your subwoofer sounds better in some spots than others. But, how do you find where it performs best? We show you how in our instructional "Subwoofer Crawl" video trick to improve the sound of your sub for no cost. Within minutes you can be on your way for finding the best location(s) to place your subwoofer.

Definitely a bit much. That's not to say that there isn't still a place for the golden triangle and perfect room dimensions, but I think the years have taught us that there are far to many opinions on what those perfect dimensions are to offer them as a blanket rule.

Oh well, at least I was able to use the clickable clapping hands to give myself a round of applause

Kris Deering

Enthusiast

I've seen this method used and have tried it myself numerous times. One thing to remember though, while the acoustic science behind this is pretty sound, it doesn't take into consideration one major detail; boundary gain. If one is to place a sub in a chair in the open room it is not interacting with the sidewalls nearly as much as corner loading or placing the sub near a large wall. So even with you crawling around near the walls, you are not getting the huge bump in output the sub would be getting if it was placed there. So listening for an even sound is difficult. But it will certainly give you an idea of where there would be large suck outs in the bass response, which are much harder to deal with.

Another resource I refer to people that want to know just about everything they possibly could about subs, bass and room placement (which also goes into the crawl method) can be found here:

Marshall_Guthrie

Audioholics Videographer Extraordinaire

Yes, there's a lot at work with subs, and the crawl method looks primarily at reflective interference (peaks and nulls). Boundary gain, sometimes called "corner loading" can increase output beyond what you would hear using the crawl. I suppose I could have included that and kept the video under 5 minutes.

I've seen this method used and have tried it myself numerous times. One thing to remember though, while the acoustic science behind this is pretty sound, it doesn't take into consideration one major detail; boundary gain. If one is to place a sub in a chair in the open room it is not interacting with the sidewalls nearly as much as corner loading or placing the sub near a large wall. So even with you crawling around near the walls, you are not getting the huge bump in output the sub would be getting if it was placed there. So listening for an even sound is difficult. But it will certainly give you an idea of where there would be large suck outs in the bass response, which are much harder to deal with.

I want to know if a HSU VTH-15 H dualdrive subwoofer is better than a PSB Subseries 500 (both combinations are about the same price: $2,000). The front system would be two Stratus Gold and one Imagine C, the rear surround would be 2 Imagine B. The amplification I plan to buy is Emotiva UMC-200 and XPA-5.

Marshall_Guthrie

Audioholics Videographer Extraordinaire

I want to know if a HSU VTH-15 H dualdrive subwoofer is better than a PSB Subseries 500 (both combinations are about the same price: $2,000). The front system would be two Stratus Gold and one Imagine C, the rear surround would be 2 Imagine B. The amplification I plan to buy is Emotiva UMC-200 and XPA-5.

Banned

jesus

Audiophyte

i its my first time on this forum and i have seen the chart of the sub review
but in the liste there is only one that is certified (i guest that meens it recomended) for small roomand that is in the 300 dollars range i would like to have more choiceses in that price range
what a have is the energy cf 50 tower the cc10 for center and too cr 10 seround and iwould like to know if the esw c-10 is good for a small room or is there better for the same price range????

and if i would add too other speakers for a 7.1 setup is it worth buying the V-S surround speaker or rc-10,cb-20,cb-10 or a other brand than is better for the same price

Jamie Smith

Enthusiast

Can you put one in the right corner and one next to the left speaker in front of you or does two have to be in the same place like two next to the speakers or two in the corner? Guess you just test it and put it where it sounds good to you. No real right or wrong I guess just personal preference.

M

memanuel70

Enthusiast

i already posted this thread in the main part but this seems to be a better place for this ..........Placement issue.......i would like to do either mid wall placement of two subs or diagonal placement for two subs, only issue is that to do midwall placemnet becuase of funiture can not put on perfect midwall, could subs be placed diagonal on front and back wall instead of side walls , or to diagonal i can only do the one sub right side of room against wall the back left side room sub can not side against wall due to furnitre again. Any ideas or suggestions, thanks.

ryanosaur

Audioholic Ninja

Yes. Put one sub in your main LP. Turn off all other sources. No speakers, no extra subs. Try different things like a LF Test Tone, say 30Hz... a rhythmic test tone like on what can be found on Power Tools by Bass Mekanik... Pink noise (this didn't work so well for me)... music with a good prominent bass line you know well. (Many peoaple talk about Daft Punk Get Lucky as an example... I used Gorillaz.)
Patience is important... it took me a while before I started hearing the differences. They can be subtle. Whats most important is that the sound be clean and tight. If it gets boomy, muddy, or dies away, those are bad spots.

TheWarrior

Audioholic Ninja

NO! You need to know the total summed output, at all listening positions, of any woofer producing an LFE channel or tower speaker run full range.

The room is simply in control of what bass you can hear, both when and where with in a room. It's just a matter of arranging enough subwoofers around the listening positions to ensure every seat, can hear every note, at the desired SPL.

Peaks can be dialed out with DSP, where dips should have their wavelength calculated so you can determine where a subwoofer should be moved so that 'dipped' frequency is no longer cancelled out.

Of course that could mean the new subwoofer location produces more peak(s). Again, the room is in control, so you just have to continue to work around it with more DSP filters, or potentially bass trapping in a variety of ways that suits budget/style.

You can actually predict the frequencies that are likely to have a peak or a dip, based on the dimensions of your room.